Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Impulse’ On YouTube Premium, About A Teenager Who Can Teleport Herself Out Of Trouble

YouTube Premium (formerly YouTube Red) is leaning hard on original programming, rolling out their first big-budget hourlong sci fi show with Impulse, based on a book by Jumper writer Steven Gould. Can Doug Liman, who brought us The Bourne Identity, bring Gould’s vision to life?

IMPULSE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A man (who looks a lot like Keegan-Michael Key, because it is — the man’s in everything!) who’s wearing a Hawaiian shirt is fighting a man in black in the middle of the Arctic Ocean. Then the both of them and lots of water all of a sudden appear on a subway, then they are back in the Arctic, on an ice floe, then the subway again. Finally, the man in black is able to disappear from the ice floe, leaving the other man alone and freezing in the middle of nowhere.

The Gist: We cut to a town in upstate New York; a teenage girl named Hennrietta (Henry) Coles (Maddie Hasson) is tagging a window, then rides her bicycle back home. The next morning, she snarks off to her mother Cleo (Missy Pyle), and ignores whatever her mom’s boyfriend Thomas Hope (Matt Gordon) tells her — “Remember our conversation about wasting?” She also makes fun of Thomas’ daughter Jenna (Sarah Desjardins), saying she dresses like her grandmother.

Henry has had seizures, so she’s not allowed to drive herself to school, so Jenna reluctantly drives her. Henry is still the new kid in school, having moved with her mother a few months before. Both of the girls’ parents, though, have gone through lots of relationships and Henry has moved a lot, so she basically keeps to herself. However, popular jock Clay Boone (Tanner Stine) keeps asking her out, but she has no use for him… yet.

Photo: YouTube Premium

After having a seizure in class, which happens under stress, she’s told she can’t drive for three years. And after being caught tagging by Deputy Sheriff Anne Hulce (Enuka Okuma), Thomas and Cleo decide to sell Henry’s car to pay the fine. She asks Clay, whose asshole dad, car dealer Bill Boone (David James Elliott), to help her take back the car. After that, they smoke a joint and make out. But when Clay gets too forceful, Henry thinks he’s going to rape her. Next thing she knows, she and some of the parts from Clay’s truck are in her bedroom.

She goes back with Jenna to where they were parked, and sees that the truck is crushed, with Clay inside. She calls in the accident, which interests Deputy Hulce. Clay’s older brother Lucas (Craig Arnold) knows she was with him before the accident. He puts her in the trunk of his car and takes him to his dad’s auto lot, but she disappears and crushes the back of Lucas’ car in the process.

Our Take:Impulse has an interesting pedigree; it’s based on a novel by Steven Gould, who wrote the Jumper novels, which were also about teleportation. The show is produced by The Bourne Identity’s Doug Liman, who also directed the pilot. Its action and sci-fi bona fides are shown in the pilot, with slick direction and fine performances.

Hasson plays Henry with the right balance of teenage malevolence and outsider attitude; she really just wants to settle in somewhere, even if it’s in the small crappy town her mother has moved them to this time around. She wishes that she can express herself via her tagging, though: we see paint in her hair and tags all over a town that shouldn’t have them. “Believe me, this town doesn’t do well with newcomers,” Deputy Hulce tells her.

Photo: YouTube Premium

Liman has done a nice job keeping the show from being a high-school drama with sci fi. Sure, the school’s most popular jock likes her, but he’s got his own issues; his dad deals drugs via car shipments and has the sheriff in his back pocket. Oh, and he’s also hard-driving and abusive — Elliott goes against his JAG persona to play Bill Cole, and it works well. But the story is more about how Harry responds to Clay’s assault, with her just figuring out that she can somehow teleport herself out of danger.

We do wish the pilot set a slightly faster pace just so we see how Henry starts to coral her newfound power. It’s a tough balance to keep people watching your show: too slow and people tune out and too fast people get exhausted. Liman’s pacing tips a little to the slow side, but not enough to turn us off.

And where does Key come in? Look at “Parting Shot” to find out.

Sex and Skin: When Harry starts kissing Clay, he starts to force himself on her, sending her stress levels through the roof when he puts his hand down her pants.

Parting Shot: We cut to the ice floe again, where Key’s character crawls, close to death, near a spot where he sees a frozen hand before he finally collapses. The man in black watches, then transports back to his wife and daughter. In French, she asks if he’s with the others. He replies “This will all be over soon, and then we’ll be safe. I promise.”

Sleeper Star: Missi Pyle is always a reliable character actor, usually in comedies. But she’s good here as Cleo, who just doesn’t get her daughter and seems to put her happiness ahead of Harry’s.

Most Pilot-y Line: The nerdy kid who is intrigued by Henry’s seizures, Townes Linderman, looks like he’s 30. That’s because the actor playing him, Daniel Maslany (younger brother of Tatiana Maslany), likely is or close. Good actor, but jeez, can we get someone younger in that role?

Our Call: Stream it, because it’s well-acted and looks great. But people looking for lots of teleportation razzle-dazzle might be disappointed.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.